The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 624

A long convoy of vehicles was parked near a wall in a remote area along the U.S.-Mexico border. Another car rolled off a transport trailer as the film crew began their preparations. A small team climbed a nearby hill, while a Mercedes E63 AMG and a Dodge Challenger pulled up to the edge of another, ready for the scene.

Then, Matthew and Paul Walker approached and stood in front of their respective cars.

The crew quickly set up the scene, and once the cameras were in position, director Justin Lin walked over to give some last-minute instructions to Gal Gadot, who had arrived on a motorcycle, before returning to Matthew and Paul.

"Matthew, Paul, remember to keep the energy up!" Justin instructed solemnly. "And Matthew, don't forget to kiss Gal at the end."

"I know," Matthew replied.

Paul gave Justin a slight nod.

Justin returned to his director's chair, and moments later, the scene began on his command.

Perched on the hood of his Mercedes E63 AMG, Matthew silently gazed toward Mexico on the other side of the border fence, a city faintly visible in the distance. Paul picked up a rock and tossed it at the barrier.

"This wall has never stopped drugs or contraband," Paul remarked.

The roar of a motorcycle echoed from the hill, and a rider in a form-fitting black suit and black helmet pulled to a stop opposite the Mercedes.The rider removed her helmet, hanging it on the handlebars and revealing a woman's face.

Matthew straightened up, moving to stand before Gal Gadot, who smiled as she adjusted her loose hair, her eyes never leaving his.

"I didn't think you'd show," Matthew said.

"You saved my life," she said, her hair fluttering in the wind. "I want to repay the favor."

She slid her hands into her pockets, the posture accentuating her slender waist and long legs. "I'll help you find Braga."

As she spoke, Gal pulled a note from her pocket and handed it to Matthew. He took it, glanced at it, and said calmly, "Thanks."

Just then, Gal Gadot suddenly grabbed his arm and warned:

"Shawn, you're killing yourself by going there."

Matthew's expression remained unchanged. "I don't have a choice."

He started to turn away, but Gal's grip on his arm tightened. "I know what you said about me that day," she added.

She took a step forward, placing her hands on Matthew's chest.

Without a moment's hesitation, Matthew pulled her close, his arms wrapping around her as he kissed her.

Gal then pulled back, looked him steadily in the eyes, and said, "Come back alive."

With that, she turned, swung her leg over the motorcycle, put on her helmet, and rode away.

Paul folded his arms across his chest and delivered a line specifically crafted by the writing team: "Do me a favor—if we come back alive, don't let her down. Marry her."

Matthew gazed thoughtfully after the retreating motorcycle and said, "I'll think about it."

"Cut!" director Justin Lin yelled. "That scene's done! Let's move to the next setup behind the hill!"

As the crew bustled about, packing up their equipment, Matthew walked back to the Mercedes and opened the door to get inside. It was then he noticed Paul starting to laugh.

"Paul," Matthew asked, confused. "What's so funny?"

Paul composed himself slightly at the question and answered with a grin:

"Don't you think my line in that scene was a bit ironic?"

At that, Matthew just shrugged.

The screenwriter had come up with the line, run it by him in advance, and gotten his approval.

As he had said many times before, he never cared what people thought about his personal life, and he was fine with turning it into an amusing inside joke for the film.

The crew moved with impressive speed, packing away cameras and other gear.

Before getting into his car, director Justin Lin called out a reminder, "You two head straight back to base camp!"

Then he instructed his assistant, "We'll go on ahead."

Soon after, Matthew and Paul also got into their cars and left the hillside. But instead of heading straight back to base camp, they followed Justin Lin's vehicle to the far side of the hill and watched the next shoot for a while.

The scene didn't involve them; it was between Gal Gadot and Daniel.

Filming continued until around noon, at which point the entire production moved back to the main vehicle convoy. This location would serve as their base for the next block of shooting: the high-octane action sequences—car chases, fistfights, and shootouts—that would form the climax of the film.

Of course, Matthew and the others wouldn't be doing the actual driving for the chase scenes as they might have in the past. They would simply sit in the vehicles and pose for the necessary shots to be edited in during post-production.

Gal Gadot had wanted to perform her own stunts for the motorcycle fight with the drug traffickers, but Matthew had vetoed the idea. The principal actors still had too many scenes left to film; any accident would severely disrupt the entire production schedule.

For the next week, the set was a chaotic symphony of collisions, high-speed vehicles, gunfights, and rollovers. Almost every day, cars were flipped and wrecked, the mangled frames hauled away by tow trucks.

Fortunately, cars were relatively inexpensive in North America; a decent vehicle could be had for $20,000 to $30,000. With the film's healthy budget, wrecking a dozen or two was a trivial expense.

The production's single largest line item was Matthew's salary. As a bankable star, he wasn't foolish enough to waive his fee just because he was also one of the film's primary investors.

Everything was handled according to standard industry practice.

He was paid a base salary of $20 million plus a five percent share of the worldwide box office gross.

No one in the cast, not even fellow investor David Ellison, could object, because they all knew it was Matthew's standard rate.

Paul Walker had been paid $8.5 million for "Into the Blue," but after that film's poor box office performance, his asking price had dropped sharply to $6 million for this one.

Jordana Brewster hadn't worked much in recent years, and her roles had been hit or miss. She had taken a break from acting after marrying producer Andrew Form the previous year, making her a C-list star at best. Still, thanks to the cachet of returning for the sequel, she commanded a million-dollar salary.

As for the other two key actors, Gal Gadot was paid $100,000, while Daniel received $200,000.

The pay gap between the two was partly due to seniority and partly due to gender.

Technically, Gal Gadot's role was much larger than Daniel's, but such was the reality of Hollywood, where women were severely underpaid for comparable work.

The total cast payroll came to a healthy sum, but it didn't exceed thirty percent of the budget, which was considered relatively low by Hollywood standards.

Matthew would never have allowed actor salaries to eat up more than half of the production budget.

There was no room for cutting corners when making a major commercial film; the money spent on production had to be visible on the screen.

Overall, "Fast & Furious 4" was financially sound, and new sponsorship deals could be secured whenever the production needed an influx of cash.

***

Shortly before the production moved to the U.S.-Mexico border, a Japanese car company, drawn by Matthew's fame and appeal, had approached the team. They wanted to provide several sponsored vehicles, specifically the one driven by the character Brian O'Conner.

But Matthew had asked Jack Beard to turn them down.

The production was short on neither cars nor cash at that point, and bringing in a new sponsor mid-shoot could disrupt their schedule. Besides, director Justin Lin and the stunt team had already selected the vehicles and choreographed the action sequences around them. It was simply too late to make a change.

In any case, the benefits such a sponsorship could offer were minimal, so turning it down was the right call.

The shoot at the U.S.-Mexico border went relatively smoothly, thanks to the meticulous preparation of director Justin Lin and the stunt team. Justin Lin, in particular, had envisioned many of the film's sequences long before he was officially hired. He had learned from the failure of "Tokyo Drift" and was determined to emphasize both speed and passion in this installment.

Most of the action scenes involving the actors took place inside a vehicle, specifically during drag races.

Matthew also got to witness firsthand just how tough Hollywood's stunt drivers were. It was clear that these professional teams were the ones responsible for so many of the insane and classic car racing scenes that came out of the industry.

Unfortunately, these professionals occupied a rather marginalized position in Hollywood.

***

After two weeks of continuous shooting, filming in the area was finally nearing its end. The work was progressing smoothly, but the location was not without its challenges. It was a relatively deserted stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, and encounters with drug traffickers and undocumented migrants were not uncommon.

Fortunately, the production was protected by a sizable security contingent that patrolled the area around the clock.